The Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi (IIT-D), has decided to set up a Centre of Excellence in Artificial Intelligence (AI) to promote research in the technology and offer solutions to complex problems in fields such as medicine, finance and customer support. The centre is expected to come up on the campus in the next six months.

The Institute currently offers courses in artificial intelligence at undergraduate and postgraduate levels. With this centre for excellence, the IIT-D is planning to bring researchers from all the departments, to inculcate AI in their respective disciplines and find solutions for various problems. “Presently, we have around 40 faculty members who are working on some aspect of AI and there are around 10 people who are working on core artificial intelligence. But with this centre, we want to create a single platform where all these researchers can come together to work in their discipline by inculcating AI,” said Mausam, who goes by his first name, an assistant professor at the IIT-D who is working on the AI technology.

The institute has collaborated with the global software firm, IBM, for the purpose. The IBM researches will be working with IIT-D’s faculty members on new AI techniques. “There are very few PhD scholars in artificial intelligence in the country. The major reason behind this is that there are very few professors for the discipline in the country. We have to make our country more lucrative for teachers. When there will be teachers only then the students can be taught. And when these students will be able to think of pursuing their PhDs in AI,” said Mausam.

As per a Niti Ayog’s paper on National Strategy for Artificial Intelligence, India only has 386 of a total of 22,000 PhD researchers in the technique worldwide, and is ranked 10th globally.

IIT-D director V Ramgopal Rao said the institute plans to promote data driven researches through AI. “In India, there is so much data available through which we can do lot of researches. For instance, in AIIMS there is so much data available on patients. You don’t get such huge data anywhere else in the world. By accessing such data through confidential means we can do great amount of AI work in the field of medicine,” he said.

Besides, the IIT-D is also planning to offer certificate courses in AI for professionals. “AI is a growing industry and professionals will need to brush their skills to adopt it. So we are also thinking to introduce some certificate courses in AI at the centre for excellence for people who may have graduated some years ago and want to brush up their skills,” said Mausam.